


Parent-Teacher Conference

by loisselina (LoisSelina)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 2nd grade, Cursed AU, F/M, season 1 AU, single parent, single parent David, teacher, teacher parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 03:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15877899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoisSelina/pseuds/loisselina
Summary: David dreads going to his daughter's annual parents meeting.





	Parent-Teacher Conference

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justanoutlaw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanoutlaw/gifts).



> Justanoutlaw's request of 'teacher/single parent au +Snowing, maybe AU of the curse where David is raising Emma?'

 

 

David had dreaded Emma’s parent teacher conferences for as long as he could remember. It wasn’t that she was a horrible child, in his very biased opinion she was the best child to ever exist, but he had known since before she had even started school that he would be called in about her behaviour. She was eight years old now, just, but even when she was a four year old in Pre-K he was being called at work about her behaviour. He had attended these a couple of times with his ex-girlfriend, Kathryn, until Emma had asked him if she ‘really really’ loved her, and he realised he hadn’t, but it had been easier than being a single parent, she hadn’t really loved him either, it turned out.

David had left Emma with Ruby this time, a waitress who he had made friends with when he had moved to the town with his very tiny new-born baby, her grandmother had tried to get him and Ruby together, but they were just good if slightly unusual friends. The year previously Emma’s 1stgrade teacher had been completely unsympathetic to Emma’s behaviour, she had claimed that Emma was misbehaving on purpose, but he knew that she wasn’t, he was trying to get her tested for ADHD but he felt like he was coming up against a million walls and had no idea what to do. He was prepared for the same outdated and insensitive response and battle this year.

“Mr Nolan?” He heard his name being called from inside the door, the last parents had left a little while ago, he could practically see her pulling out a drawer full of behaviour reports. He squeezed his eyes shut tight before opening them and quickly standing up.

 

* * *

 

 

The classroom was brightly coloured, with clearly set out areas for reading and for the lunchboxes and bags, there were tiny grouped tables with the table signs on each telling the kids which ones to sit at. He noticed all of the kids pictures around. It just seemed so totally welcoming. But he was struck when he saw Ms Blanchard for the first time, normally he would drop Emma at breakfast club early before rushing to work, or one of his friends would take Emma for him if he was on nights. So he had never seen Mary Margaret Blanchard before, except that he had, around the town particularly at the diner where he and Emma would spend time and hang out with Ruby. He stood still for a second as he was hit by how beautiful she was, she was just beyond stunning, he had to quickly shake it off, he was there for Emma.

He quickly took the seat with a sheepish smile. "Hi."

Mary blinked heavily, this was not what she had expected Emma's father to look like, despite all of Emma's stories about him. "H-Hi, I'm Mary Margaret, I mean Ms Blanchard, both I suppose." 

David smiled softly as the teacher's bumbling. "I'm David." For some strange reason that felt like a big moment, he wasn't sure why, what else would he have told her that he was called? He sighed with good humour. "So... I guess now is the moment you show me all of Emma's behaviour reports."

Mary would have been a little put off by that if she hadn't seen all of Emma's past reports and and listened to all of Mrs Heath's complaints the year before. "Emma's very, very intelligent." She said instead. "And she's very funny, she's got such a good sense of humour, especially for someone so young. And she always tries to help anyone she sees who needs it." Emma was constantly reminding her of someone else, but she couldn't for the life of her think of who, she just knew that they had meant a lot to her. 

"That's, that's probably the nicest thing a teacher has ever said about her." David's voice came out raw with emotion. 

Mary frowned. Emma was such a nice and caring little girl she didn't think it was right that no teacher had ever said anything truthful yet positive like that. "I know that last year Mrs Heath said that you raised concerns over Emma's behaviour." 

David sighed. "Yeah, I..." He sighed again, he was waiting for Ms Blanchard to completely ruin everything about this meeting, to claim that really she was smart enough to be doing it deliberately. "I was trying to get Mrs Heath to give a statement on Emma's behaviour, the doctor said I need statements from as many people as possible especially Em's teacher, she and I disagreed on why Emma behaves how she does, so she decided against writing anything." He was trying his best not to talk bad about one of Ms Blanchard's colleagues. 

Mary frowned, she knew that Mrs Heath was rather archaic in her views, she had heard her ranting about Emma before, it was probably one of the few times she had ever had an argument with anyone. "Have you been, have you ever considered, that perhaps Emma has a form of ADHD?" She waited for the repercussion like she did whenever she said something which a parent wouldn't want to hear. 

David let out a sightly breathless laugh. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to hear those words." 

Mary noticed how laughing seemed to take years off of his already handsome face, and that his perfect smile showed of his perfect teeth, and crinkled his baby blues. For some reason her cheeks tinged pink. "I could write it for you, I can have it done whenever you need, I took the liberty of finding some leaflets for you too." She handed them over still blushing.

"Perhaps you could give it to me later this week?" He suggested hopefully. "There's this diner called Granny's which makes awesome food and drinks, I don't know if you know it, but we could meet there." He already knew that she knew it but he wasn't about to say that, and sound like a stalker.

Neither of them pointed out that she could have sent it to the doctor herself, or given to him at the school, or put it in Emma's bag to take home. "I do know it, maybe Friday night, if you're free?" 

"I am." He said immediately and knew that he would have to ask Ruby or her grandma to watch Emma, this was for Emma's sake, mostly. 

 

* * *

 

Mary and David met that Friday, and the Friday after, and the one after that, at first they just talked about Emma and ADHD, but very quickly there became nothing they couldn't talk to each other about. They recommended each other books, and movies and tv shows to watch, and the other would quickly read or watch them just because they knew how much it made the other person smile. They started to bump into each other in the mornings there too, when David managed to sort out his work so that he could take Emma to school, and Emma was more than happy to spend time with her teacher.

When David finally bucked up the courage to ask Mary on a proper date he made sure to make it somewhere a bit posher than Granny's.

A week later Mary found an old looking storybook in her closet and had a feeling it would be perfect for Emma, she slipped it into her purse before meeting them at the diner for breakfast, not knowing that it was the second step to getting their lives back, the first step had been falling in love with her Prince Charming.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
